


A Sparkling Copy

by thespookyfish



Category: Guild Wars (Video Game), Guild Wars 2 (Video Game), Guild Wars Series (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 00:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thespookyfish/pseuds/thespookyfish
Summary: Aazri and her krewe are trying to win the 1326 Snaff Prize, but an act of sabotage triggers a series of events she will never forget.





	A Sparkling Copy

* * *

 

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_19:45_

 

“Nobody remembers the runner-up, and we couldn’t even do _that_ well!” Aazri ranted to her father, who was trying to calm her. Tears welled up in her eyes. “This isn’t something I can just pick up and carry on from like nothing happened. This is the _Snaff Prize!”_

Brokk sighed and removed his glasses, placing them in his pocket. He embraced his daughter, one hand on the back of her head.

Aazri was an auburn-haired young woman with cream-coloured skin and a spotty complexion. Her bright purple eyes were streaming tears. Brokk, her father, was a whole head taller than her, dark-skinned, and blue-eyed.

“Dad, this competition is judged by my idol. Do you understand? Zojja is the greatest scientific mind of our age! And mom…” she trailed off, laying her forehead against her father’s shoulder. Brokk rubbed her back, and spoke with a calm voice from beneath a mop of silver-coloured hair.

“Your mother would have been so proud of you, Aazri. Riina was a true Dynamics alum, always the type to pick herself up from a bad result and try harder the next time.”

“But it’s not fair!” Aazri shouted, pulling back from him angrily. “It’s not fair that we did so badly when we clearly had the best project. A deliberate act of sabotage was the only reason we didn’t win!”

* * *

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_10:10_

 

“Ah!” Aazri’s eyes went wide as the hardlight golem perfectly carried out its programmed commands.

“Aaz, we did it! It’s working!” Krena yelled, her face alight with exhausted happiness. “Just in time to run it in the competition today. We’re gonna take the whole thing. This is amazing!”

Krena was by all accounts gorgeous. She had dark chocolate-coloured skin, jet black hair, and bright green eyes.

“We are,” agreed Nejja, smiling broadly. “Not to mention, I don’t think anyone here would deny that this is largely due to your effort Aazri. I think you just claimed the title of _Snaff Savant.”_

“Th-that’s not true! You two worked just as hard as I did to bring this prototype to life!” Aazri responded, “If we win, we did it _together.”_

The tallest of the group, Nejja had slightly pinkish skin, and piercing blue eyes. Her hair was dyed a shocking shade of red.

The three of them had been working together as a krewe since graduating from the College of Dynamics earlier that year, under the managerial and organizational expertise of Nejja. Aazri looked at both of them, feeling pride and gratitude.

 

“Aazri!” another voice called, causing all three girls to turn their heads. Aazri leaped from her workstation and embraced the new arrival. She was a bit taller than Aazri, had orange hair, and fiery red eyes that had a twinkle in them Aazri had always liked.

“Leeha! It’s working!”

 _“Seriously?_ You did it?”

“On a _golem!_ Look!”

Aazri pointed across the lab, where the hardlight golem was working together with an identical physical golem to stack large crates in a pyramid.

“It’s a perfect copy, right down to the programming!” Aazri beamed.

“Do you want a demonstration of the copying process, Leeha?” asked Nejja, holding up the prototype. It was an arm-mounted unit currently affixed to her forearm. “I believe Aazri promised you as much for all the emotional and moral support you’ve given her.”

Krena’s smile faded, as if she did not approve in the slightest.

“Is that a good idea?” Krena asked, apprehensively. “Before the competition, I mean? The prototype is very delicate. We don’t want to risk wearing it out or…”

She glanced at Leeha.

“Any other incidents.”

“Oh…” Leeha muttered glumly. “She’s probably right. Don’t worry about it.”

“Nonsense! We don’t build things that flimsy, Krena,” Aazri said.

“I… I think it’s probably fine,” agreed Nejja.

Outnumbered, Krena threw up her hands with a sigh.

“Alright, fine. Do what you like.”

 

Aazri set a sword and a pistol in the centre of the lab floor, stepping back out of Nejja’s way. Nejja aimed the prototype’s scanner at the objects and pressed a button. The unit on her arm beeped compliantly. What happened next made Aazri grin, and Leeha’s jaw drop.

From scratch, the items were built from hardlight right in front of their eyes, identical in every way, except for being semi-transparent and a rather brilliant shade of orange.

“They’re perfect copies, down to the atomic level in detail,” Aazri explained, picking up the sword. She turned and cut through a nearby empty crate with ease. “Even the sharpness is copied.”

She picked up the pistol, aimed it at the crate, and pulled the trigger. A hardlight projectile shot from the barrel and impacted the crate with a loud bang.

“It can support three active copies at a time in the on-board memory. But it doesn’t just copy form and function. The device can read data storage units in its scan and replicate programming for more complicated devices. Hence how that hardlight golem can perfectly copy and cooperate with its brother over there.”

The golems paused their building project to lean and look over in their direction, as if they knew they were being talked about. It lasted only a moment before they resumed construction.

“Short of hands and need a big job done? Copy your favourite golem. Not enough forks at the dinner table? Copy a fork and surprise your guest! The applications of our work are almost limitless!”

 

Nejja deactivated the device and detached it from her arm, setting it on a custom-made stand. She attached a cable to a port in the side, and ran it to Aazri’s computer station. Leeha seemed astounded by the whole spectacle.

“I’m so proud of you! You’re totally gonna take the competition today. I almost can’t believe it!” she said, following Aazri around to look at the screen. Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if noticing something. Aazri was too busy running simulations to pay Leeha any mind.

“Krena, where did you put that matrix encoder when you were done with it?” Aazri asked, absentmindedly.

“Back on the rack. You know, where it belongs,” came Krena’s exasperated response.

“Right,” said Aazri, and left the workstation to grab the encoder from the rack. Leeha leaned in close to the terminal screen, and several beeps and blips were heard from the workstation. Krena’s eyes narrowed, and she stood up angrily.

 _“Get away from that!”_ she shouted, starting over toward Leeha, who backed away from the console with a startled look on her face. She put her hands in the air.

“I didn’t do anything! It just started making noise!”

“What’s going on?” Aazri asked, returning with the matrix encoder.

“Your friend is sabotaging our work. _That’s_ what’s going on,” hissed Krena, staring daggers at Leeha. Aazri looked back and forth between Krena and Leeha.

“H-hey! Leeha is my best friend. She wouldn’t do that. Look,” Aazri said, pointing at the terminal screen. “The simulations are completely unchanged. She didn’t do anything!”

“I didn’t! I promise!” pleaded Leeha.

“I don’t believe you!” snapped Krena. Aazri was speechless, unable to say anything to either of them.

_“ENOUGH!”_

Nejja strode across the lab to Aazri’s workstation to defuse the situation. She spoke to Leeha carefully.

“Look, Leeha, maybe it’s time for you to leave for now. We have a lot of prep to do before the competition this afternoon. We may have the second-last time slot, but we have to be ready.”

“A-Alright,” Leeha stuttered, turning and heading out of the lab with a final look at Aazri.

“Krena,” Nejja continued, with a much more stern tone of voice. “If Aazri is sure there’s nothing wrong, I believe her, and so should you. No one knows the inner workings of this prototype like she does. Her word should be enough for you.”

Mollified just enough to back down, Krena grunted discontentedly and walked away to resume her work. Nejja, apparently convinced that the incident was dealt with to her satisfaction, turned and continued reading through her notes, leaving Aazri alone at her workstation. Aazri focused her eyes on the console in front of her, and then up at the door that Leeha left through, torn by an uncertainty that hadn’t been there moments before.

* * *

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_15:45_

 

Checked. Double checked. Triple checked. More? Aazri had lost count of how many times she had gone over the programming, checked all the connections, run simulations. It’s fine, right? It should be fine. She loaded a fresh copy of the latest version of the code into the device’s firmware, unplugging it from her mobile workstation and handing it to Nejja.

The three of them were standing on the edge of the battleground plaza outside Soren Draa, waiting for the current Snaff Prize entry to finish.

“In conclusion, as I believe we have effectively demonstrated here today, our Prototype Indoor Terrain—You Under Stone, or P-I-T-Y-U-S effectively recreates the feeling of living underground.”

An asura was standing in the centre of the plaza beneath a floating stone slab, held up by miniature levitation buttresses. A positional relay held it in place exactly ninety centimetres above their head. Their team lead continued to talk.

“It increases energy levels!” said the stout, stone-skinned male. The asura under the slab, also male, began to dance in demonstration.

“It improves your mood!” he said, and the demonstrator smiled widely, a set of pointed teeth gleaming.

“It even energizes your libido!” proclaimed the team lead. The asura beneath the floating stone clicked his tongue in a suggestive manor and winked at Zojja. Her face, which until then wore a rather bored expression, twisted into one of faint disgust. She crossed her arms.

“If we can escape the gaze of that awful fiery sphere hanging in the sky, every aspect of our lives will be improved. Thank you for your consideration!”

The group of them bowed. A crackling was heard, and everyone looked up to the levitating slab of rock. The levitation buttresses began to flicker and sputter. The asura standing beneath it stared up at it, eyes wide, and barely managed to roll out of the way as it crashed down precisely where he’d been standing.

Golems lumbered into the plaza to clean up the mess.

“Thank you…” began Zojja, hesitantly, as if she’d just been freed from a hostage situation. “That was… very interesting! As soon as the golems clear the plaza could we have Nejja’s team, please?”

 

“This is it,” Nejja said, taking a deep breath. Aazri and Krena did the same. Aazri couldn’t keep her eyes off the prototype, and a sudden nagging feeling deep in the pit of her stomach.

The square was cleared, and Nejja stepped into view, followed by their construction golem—the same one they’d tested on that morning.

“Members of the Arcane Council, Zojja, and our other esteemed guests and fellow competitors. We have something remarkable to demonstrate for you today.”

Aazri couldn’t help but feel like Zojja was doing an awesome job keeping her composure and confidence under so much active scrutiny.

“Today, in honour of Snaff’s memory, we bring you our creation. This device is the result of months of labour. It is the product of steady and organized minds, of our unbreakable determination to do great things, and no short supply of genius. The three of us have worked hard to bring you this presentation.”

Zojja glanced over at Aazri and Krena, and Aazri felt her heartbeat increase in tempo by at least 30%.

“This, is the Arm-Mounted Hardlight Acquisition—Recreation Device, or _AM-HARD!”_

Nejja aimed the acquisition camera at the construction golem, and the AM-HARD visibly scanned it, signalling success with the usual happy beep. Pointing the projector at the empty space next to the golem, Nejja fired the device and, before everyone’s eyes, a perfect hardlight copy of the construction golem appeared, just as it had that morning. Aazri’s heart leaped when she saw Zojja’s eyes widen, apparently impressed.

“And now, observe!” Nejja instructed the crowd. The original golem began its task of grabbing nearby crates to stack. The hardlight copy remained perfectly still. The bottom fell out of Aazri’s stomach.

“Eeh-heh-heh. Just a moment,” Nejja said, clearly nervous. She pressed a few buttons on the prototype, and the hardlight golem flickered. She looked up at it expectantly, and Aazri pleaded silently for the golem to move.

It did not.

Nejja looked desperately over at Aazri, who was too stunned to react. As if to underline the fact that something was seriously wrong with their creation, the construction golem worked happily away at its job, building a pyramid of crates in the centre of the plaza. The hardlight copy just stood there, silently mocking them.

 

“Well,” began Zojja, “Your project certainly has flash.” Aazri’s heart sank, and her ears drooped.

“Unfortunately, flash is not substance. Although I must admit, the copy is incredibly detailed. I’d go so far as to say perfect. You have clearly bridged the gap between holography and hardlight projection. That is possibly the best three-dimensional scanning device I have ever seen.”

A 3D scanner? That’s what Zojja, _the Zojja_ , thinks of their creation. Aazri stared at the hardlight golem, wishing she’d had time to go over the device one more time before their presentation. Just one more time and maybe she’d have found a glitch, or ironed out a tricky piece of code.

“Could you please ask your construction golem to clear those crates out of the plaza so we can see our final presentation, please?” Zojja asked, a tone of finality in her voice.

Dejectedly, Nejja turned and waved at the golem, giving it new orders. It began to clear the crates out of the way. Aazri turned to her right to see Krena had dropped to sit on the ground, looking defeated.

 

“What happened, Aazri?” a familiar voice enquired. “It almost looked to me like you uploaded a fresh version of your code to the device, but the first command string after the copy index was missing a comma.”

“W-what? I…” Aazri looked up and saw Leeha standing a couple metres away, that twinkle in her eye looking suddenly sinister. Krena narrowed her eyes and glared at the orange-headed asura.

“I wonder how, _exactly,_ she knows that, Aazri?” Krena insinuated, turning her angry eyes onto Aazri, who looked back and forth between them for the second time today.

“But… she couldn’t…” Aazri started, looking at Leeha with pleading eyes. “You wouldn’t!”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t,” stated Leeha. “At least, you can’t prove that I would.”

“But Leeha, you’re my best friend! I even offered to include you in this project from the beginning! We graduated together!”

“Oh, Aazri. When you offered me a spot in your silly little team, I told you that joining you would be like holding a torch up to a supernova. You thought I was paying you a great compliment. A measure of your intelligence, I suppose, as I meant it the other way around.”

Aazri was heartbroken.

“Next presentation please!” Zojja called from the other side of the plaza.

“I guess I’ll see you later. Excelsior!” Leeha sang, turning to join the group gathering in front of Zojja.

 

“Now we know why she was so interested in our project,” said Nejja, angrily pulling the prototype off her arm. “She was a contestant herself. We were bookahs.”

She tossed the prototype to Aazri, who gasped and caught it carefully, lest it hit the ground and break.

“The way I see it, the only bookah here is _Aazri,”_ said Krena acidly. “You said it yourself, Nejja, you put your trust in her. And _she_ trusted Leeha. You know I never did.”

Nejja looked over at Aazri, as if torn.

“Let’s go, Nejja. I don’t want any part of this krewe anymore, or its failed project.”

Krena picked herself up off the ground and began to walk away. Nejja looked momentarily conflicted, but then gave Aazri a shrug of her shoulders and followed behind Krena.

* * *

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_20:25_

 

Aazri was certain her father didn’t understand. He’d never had his work or his achievements sabotaged like this. They had placed better than Leeha’s krewe, and that was the only redemption she had left at that point.

Back in her lab, she looked over at the device sitting on the workbench. Its very existence was an awful reminder of what happened today. She crossed the lab to the bench, and selected a hammer hanging on the wall. Lifting it above her head, she prepared to smash the device. But she hesitated.

“You okay, kid?”

Aazri turned around and her eyes went wide as saucers.

_“Zojja!?”_

“I can tell you took whatever little mishap happened to your project pretty hard. But I wanted you to know I thought you and your krewe did really well in the competition. And you three are like, what, nineteen? Twenty? You did really great for your age. Maybe if you can fix your device by next year, you could try again? What’s that saying from your college? An experiment is only a failure if nothing is learned from it.”

Aazri could tell Zojja was trying to cheer her up. Her idol was right in front of her, taking pity on her for her loss.

“I could fix it in about 30 seconds. It doesn’t matter,” Aazri said, facing the bench again and setting down the hammer. “The competition is over. We’d have had a shot at first if Leeha hadn’t sabotaged me.”

Zojja sighed.

“Making an accusation of a Snaff Prize competitor isn’t exactly original, you know. But if you can show me proof that your device was tampered with, and then show me that it works, I can reevaluate you and shout the council down to get the ruling overturned. If your project is as amazing as you claimed.”

Aazri spun around again.

“I think I _can_ prove it!” she said excitedly, grabbing the device and racing across the lab to her workstation. She found the error in the code exactly where Leeha said it was.

“There’s an error in my code that wasn’t there this morning. Leeha was in my lab with us, and she touched my console. She created a new build of the code with the error inside. I didn’t see it because my simulations were running the working build. But when I uploaded a fresh copy of the code into the device before the competition, it received the bug from Leeha’s newer build.”

“Once again, that’s a bold claim… If all you have is your word, I can’t—”

“No, I can prove she touched my console this morning. Would that be enough?”

Zojja pursed her lips in thought.

“I think it would. A competitor in your lab is suspicious enough as it is, but it isn’t actionable. If she’d touched your project in any way, however, that’s different. She’d be disqualified.”

Aazri pointed up at the security cameras on the ceiling. “All the security footage recorded in this room is stored on the second floor of a facility in Soren Draa. If you come with me, I should be able to call up a recording that proves her guilt.”

“Alright. It’s pretty late, and I’m admittedly not liking how any of this smells, so I’m going to grab some backup in case we run into trouble,” said Zojja.

Aazri repaired the coding and uploaded a working build to the AM-HARD’s firmware. She took the device and attached it to her arm.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_20:58_

The guard outside the facility didn’t want to let them in, but when he saw Zojja, and the stoic, intimidating presence of Mr. Sparkles bearing down on him, his tune changed pretty quickly and he admitted them all into the building, which was closed for the night and empty.

They made their way to the second floor, and found the terminal used for viewing security recordings. Aazri sat in front of the terminal and began pressing buttons. She called up a list which indicated files recorded on specific dates. However, the most recent file was missing.

“There’s no recording for today. That doesn’t make sense. They’re archived here in twelve-hour intervals, and the last interval ended about three hours ago. There should be a file here, but there’s not!”

Aazri sat back in the chair, feeling defeated.

“Additional-presence-detected.”

 

Both of them turned to look at Mr. Sparkles, who pointed over at the window. There was an asura dressed in black attempting to climb out the window. Their face was masked, but Aazri could see their eyes. The familiar twinkle was all she needed to see.

“Stop her! Please! She must have the recording!”

Zojja didn’t waste a moment.

“Mr. Sparkles, engage!”

“Initiating-defensive-protocols. Stop-thief.”

He began running toward the intruder, but they leaped from the window. By the time they all reached the opening to look down, their target was safely on the ground.

“It’s Leeha,” Aazri said with certainty.

“How did she get down from here? It’s a long drop!” Zojja pointed out.

“What matters is how _we’re_ getting down.”

Aazri aimed the AM-HARD at the sloped side of the building, and copied out a slide for them that attached to the window. Zojja understood instantly.

“Mr. Sparkles will take the long way. Let’s go!”

She launched herself down the slide as Mr. Sparkles turned to run back to the stairs. Aazri followed closely behind Zojja.

“This way!” Zojja called, taking a hard right at the bottom of the slide. Leeha was running, heading for an opening in the rocks.

“Isn’t that—” Aazri started.

“Yes,” answered Zojja quickly.

 

Leeha led them into the Wildflame Caverns, a cave filled with pools of lava, temperamental creatures, and sweltering heat. She stayed a good distance ahead of them, despite their best efforts to keep up. She climbed up to the top of a rock next to a lava pool and tossed something into the molten rock. Whatever it was fizzled and popped out of existence very quickly. Aazri had a sinking feeling it was the data from the security cameras.

“Watch out!” Zojja called. Leeha had used magic to gather up a quantity of lava and hurl it in their direction.

“I forgot to warn you!” Aazri said, quickly scanning the cave floor and projecting it above them like an umbrella to protect them from the lava. It splashed against the hardlight and none made it through to Aazri and Zojja.

“She’s a talented elementalist,” Aazri finished.

“Noted,” answered Zojja, staring at the hardlight projection. “That’s pretty good!”

“She’s at it again!” Aazri shouted. This time, Leeha had gathered up a large bubble of water. She tossed it into the lava and the entire cavern was suddenly filled with steam. Aazri cleared the projection buffer and their lava shield disappeared.

“I can’t see a thing,” complained Zojja. “Mr. Sparkles, are you here yet!”

“Affirmative,” came the monotonous reply. His footsteps could be heard approaching from behind.

“Scan for the target!”

“Scanning. Target-not-present.”

“She must have used the steam as a cover to escape!” Aazri lamented.

“We have bigger problems at present. The embers are… how to put it? Angry?”

“Well, their hot, dry cave was just filled with steam…”

Winged elemental creatures made of fire and heat were converging on their position.

“They think we did it,” Aazri said, wishing she was anywhere but where she was.

“Yeah, I gathered that much. They’re blocking the way out, look!”

A group of them had gathered in front of the cave’s entrance, trapping them inside.

“I’ll hold them off for as long as I can,” Zojja said, “I need you to find us another way out of here.”

“I’m on it!”

 

Aazri ran deeper into the cave. The heat was unbearable and made it difficult to breathe. But fresh air and a hint of daylight inside the lava-lit cave gave her hope.

“I found something!” Aazri called, and Zojja and Mr. Sparkles began making their way toward her.

“Look, I’m pretty tough, and Mr. Sparkles is no slouch, but we’re a little outnumbered here. I can’t hold them off for much longer!”

“Get a little closer!” Aazri shouted. In a tactical retreat, Zojja managed to draw level with Aazri. Mr. Sparkles was swinging left and right.

Aazri levelled the AM-HARD at Mr. Sparkles and triggered the acquisition sequence. After a series of beeps, she pointed at the ground next to Mr. Sparkles, and prayed.

Before their eyes, a perfect hardlight copy of Mr. Sparkles was built up, and upon completion, defended his colleague from a particularly feisty ember.

“Prepare-to-don-the-behind-hat,” the copy bellowed.

Zojja’s jaw dropped.

“That’s incredible!” she said, agape.

“C’mon!”

Under the cover of two punch-happy golems, they managed to make their way up to the hole in the cave. It led out onto a cliff. Sixty-feet below was a rushing river.

“Even if the golems can cover us, we can’t survive a drop like that!” Zojja said, looking down at the water below.

“We won’t have to!” Aazri said, smiling. She copied the ground beneath them and then projected a perfectly square platform ten feet below. “Jump!”

 

The two of them leaped from the cliff, landing safely on the platform. Mr. Sparkles chased them to the edge of the cliff, leaving the hardlight copy to fight the embers.

“Jump!” Zojja ordered, and the golem plummeted harmlessly to the river below, surfacing a moment later and making his way to shore.

Aazri deactivated the hardlight golem and projected a second platform. The pair of them leapfrogged from platform to platform until they were about twenty feet from the water.

“Look out!” Zojja called to Aazri, tackling her out of the way of a bolt of magical fire from the embers above. They tumbled off the platform and into the water below.

* * *

_The day of the Snaff Prize Competition, 1326_

_21:18_

Aazri coughed some water out of her lungs, crawling up the side of the riverbank. Zojja was right behind her, none the worse for wear.

“Are you okay?” she asked Aazri.

“I… _think_ so,” she answered, coughing.

“Oh! Your device!”

Aazri looked down at the AM-HARD, and her face fell. Between the tumble and the exposure to river water, the device was battered, wet, and sparking a bit. She pressed a few buttons, but there was no denying it. It was toast.

“It’s gone…”

“You still have the plans, right? That device is remarkable! If you had a demonstration like _that_ during the competition, you’d have done a lot better.”

“Well, that didn’t happen. Honestly, it was kind of a miracle we got it to work in the first place. But it looked like Leeha destroyed the evidence I need. We can’t even prove it was her.”

Zojja put a consoling hand on Aazri’s shoulder. “I’m sorry we didn’t get your evidence. I can’t overturn the competition results, but you have definitely earned my respect.”

Aazri smiled. “Thank you. Honestly, I think that means more to me than winning the Snaff Prize ever could. Though that would have looked fantastic on my list of achievements.”

Zojja grinned.

“Don’t worry kid. I think you're going places.”


End file.
